Since I’m mostly posting photos here nowadays, I’ve decided to consolidate Unapologetically Mundane with my photography website. It’s been an amazing six years here, but I’m really excited about having a dedicated photography blog. Where I’ll obviously still continue to talk about whatever personal stuff I want to, because clients want to see that their photographers have personality, right?! Eek.

You’ll find my new Ettible Photography blog here, and you can follow me using my new RSS feed here.

Thank you for your blogfriendship, and I hope to see you on the new site!

On the 4th of July last year, I tried to go see World War Z with a few of my friends, but the theater in my neighborhood had a line that wrapped around the block, so we went back to my apartment to watch Edward Scissorhands (what?) and eat Mexican food from a place with prices so low it’s cause for alarm in Brooklyn. When the fireworks were about to start, we went up on our rooftop and stood around with all the people in our building we’ve never met and listened to the Bon Jovi and Ted Nugent coming from a private party in the area of the roof where Jack could’ve paid an extra $40,000 when he bought our place to own a chunk and fence it off from the plebeians but didn’t because he’s not insane.

Fireworks were going off in all directions around us from different parts of the boroughs and the tri-state area, and the lights on the Empire State Building were switching from pink to purple to white in a way that made it look like the top was spinning. I took this picture of Chris, Nik, Jack, and Andrew for no real reason and edited it right away but never did anything with it. I came across it recently, though, and it amazed me how different everyone looked even seven months ago. We’re growing up! And someday, these guys will have gotten married and had kids and moved to other cities like everyone does, and one of them will find this picture and think back to the better times in his life when he was eating cheap Mexican food with his best friends on a rooftop in New York City.

I’m addicted to HGTV and its house-hunting shows, but I’ve realized in watching them that my idea of the dream home is entirely different from what the majority of Americans are apparently envisioning. Aside from not really minding non-granite countertops and never ever ever wanting carpet in any bedroom, I also couldn’t care less about a big backyard. Backyards mean bugs to me, and as much as NYC is known for its cockroaches, I’ve never seen one in my Brooklyn apartment.

And you know who else doesn’t care about big backyards? My best friend, Tracey, who has owned this gigantic four-bedroom, three-bathroom house in the ‘burbs for years now. Do you know how many times she and I have been out on her spacious deck or in her expanse of grass? Twice that I can recall. Once was to take this bird’s nest photo, which she spotted from inside, and where we immediately retreated back to once the picture was taken. I’m still shocked every time that the color robin egg blue is based on actual robin’s eggs.

My hunt has been a long and arduous one, but I’ve finally found the best natural, aluminum-free deodorant for me. I’ve been trying to switch to natural deodorant for months now. There’s no hard evidence that traditional commercial deodorants cause breast cancer, but there’s enough Internet worrying about it that I took notice. Then there’s the fact that the aluminum in those store-bought deodorants works by blocking your body’s natural attempts to sweat. Then there’s the fact that aluminum is apparently what causes those yellow stains in the armpits of your favourite white shirts. I use natural shampoo and natural make-up and natural oils and butters, so why not natural, aluminum-free deodorant?

Well, it turns out I’m really sensitive to them. I first tried pure baking soda mixed with a little water to make a paste. Then I tried Arm & Hammer Essentials Natural Deodorant. Then Desert Essence Tea Tree Oil Deodorant with Lavender. Then Tom’s of Maine Long Lasting Wild Lavender Deodorant. Then an Aromaco bar from LUSH. I even tried a men’s deodorant that didn’t claim to have any anti-perspirant properties at all. All of them turned my innocent armpits into a rashy mess. Sometimes it’d take days for the redness to set in, and I’d be hopeful for a moment, but it’d eventually turn up in every case.

I wanted to give up a couple of times and go back to my tried-and-true commercial deodorant, but I’d been through the two-or-three-week detoxifying period where my body was supposedly getting used to the lack of aluminum and expelling all of its pent-up nastiness, and I hated to lose my momentum. But because of the rashes, I kept trying to go without any deodorant at all, and I was tired of smelling myself at night when I was trying to sleep.

And then I read my friend Cassie‘s blog post about her very sensitive armpits and her switch to Bubble & Bee‘s ‘Pit Putty in Geranium Lime. She’d had all of the same problems I had and swore ‘Pit Putty actually worked and didn’t upset her fussy skin. So I bought two sticks of the stuff (along with a couple of lip balms, because I can’t resist flavors like coconut-lime).

DREAM COME TRUE. I noticed even on the first day of use that something just felt . . . different . . . from the other natural deodorants I’d tried. Over the next couple of weeks, I felt like my body really was getting used to the ‘Pit Putty in a way that it hadn’t with the others. I seemed to stink less every day and to need less of the stuff. I love the way it smells so citrusy, and I love that it instantly deodorizes me even if I’ve been lazing around the house for hours like unemployed people are wont to do. I’ve been applying it two or three times daily as my body gets used to it, and I’ve never had a problem with skin sensitivity.

It was going on kind of crumbly at first so that I had to rub in the flakes after I applied it, but I’ve found that if I twist it up so that it’s just peeking over the sides of the container, I don’t have any crumbling. It feels like powder going on, and it keeps feeling like powder all day long. It doesn’t leave any residue on my clothes, and my clothes never come off smelling funky like they did with other natural deodorants. I have no complaints, only praise. I highly recommend that you try ‘Pit Putty if you’d like to make the switch to natural deodorant, and I suggest getting the Geranium Lime or Original scents without baking soda in case you have the same sensitivities I spent so many months dealing with.

After just a few weeks with ‘Pit Putty, I finally feel like I’ve found something that’s not only as good as my old deodorant but actually better. Huge, huge thanks to Cassie and to Bubble & Bee.

Last year, I decided to plan a birthday party for him, asked him where he wanted to have it, didn’t like the place he chose, secretly decided we’d move it to a place I liked better halfway through, made everyone trek through a snowstorm to get to the new place, lost half of the group on the way, and got to my place only to find out they were closing but stayed anyway with my half of the group while Jack’s half of the group went to another place across the street. What a super friend I am, right? But he seems to love me, anyway, and I love him. But I’m wisely not planning a party for him this year.

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ABOUT

I'm Katie, a farmgirl originally from Ohio who moved to NYC in 2005 for no apparent reason. I like vintage-looking things that are actually new, filagree everything, people who don't make me feel awkward, meaning it when I say "no sleep till Brooklyn", and not trying too hard.

Unapologetically Mundane is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. All opinions expressed, however, are my own.